Back in October, when Iran test-fired a next-generation, surface-to-surface ballistic missile dubbed “Emad,” Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said the following about the future of Iran’s vaunted missile program: “We don’t ask anyone’s permission to enhance our defense power or missile capability and will firmly pursue our defense plans, particularly in the field of missiles.”
The launch infuriated US lawmakers who voted against the Iran nuclear accord and was promptly trotted out by Obama’s political opponents as further evidence that the President has adopted an unacceptably conciliatory position vis-a-vis what amounts to a belligerent pariah state.
Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, said in December that Tehran “knows neither this administration nor the UN Security Council is likely to take any action.”
And Corker was right. Well, sort of. A few weeks after Corker made that comment a flurry of activity between the US and Iran lit up the wires. The IRGC fired rockets in close proximity to an American aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, the US readied fresh sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies in connection with the ballistic missile program, and the Ayatollah pulled an epic publicity stunt on the eve of Obama’s final state-of-the-union address when the IRGC kidnapped US sailors only to return them, along with long-held hostages, the following morning.
It’s against that rather fraught backdrop that Iran has once again test-fired ballistic missiles.
“Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired several ballistic missiles from silos across the country on Tuesday defying recent U.S. sanctions on its missile program,” Reuters reports.
The weapons were apparently medium-range Qiam-1s and struck targets some 700 km away.
"Our main enemies are imposing new sanctions on Iran to weaken our missile capabilities… But they should know that the children of the Iranian nation in the Revolutionary Guards and other armed forces refuse to bow to their excessive demands," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC's aerospace arm said, in a statement.
The latest tests, dubbed “The Power of Velayat” (a nod to the Republic’s religious doctrine), are “intended to show Iran's deterrent power and also the Islamic Republic's ability to confront any threat against the (Islamic) Revolution, the state and the sovereignty of the country,” the IRGC added.
For those curious, here's what "deterrent power" looks like (note how amusingly calm the reporter remains when the projectile comes flyiing out of the ground behind him):
Iran state TV shows launch of ballistic missile from underground base, presenter calls it a "missile revolution." pic.twitter.com/VfsBs3PNiZ
— Thomas Erdbrink (@ThomasErdbrink) March 8, 2016
There you have it. "Deterrence."
For reference, the Quiam-1 ("Uprising" in Persian) is based on the Shabab-2. By mid-2010, Iran was estimated to have between 200 and 300 Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles capable of reaching targets in neighboring countries.
There was no immediate response from Israel or other "concerned" nations, but we imagine Obama will soon tell us how launching ballistic missiles doesn't violate sanctions on...er... ballistic missiles.
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For those who missed it, here's a video tour of one of Iran's many underground missile silos: